JanIQ's First Common Bond Quiz

Answer: Rob Roy

Did you think Lucky Luke was a real Scottish person? Alas, you're wrong. Lucky Luke is a fictitious character: a "poor lonesome cowboy" in a comic strip series. The Belgian comic strip artist Morris (real name Maurice De Bevere, 1923-2001) did the graphic work for this series, while the scripts were written by the French author René Goscinny (1926-1977) until his death.

Nicholas Nickleby is a fictitious character also. (My apologies to any real living person with this name, but I haven't found any notorious Nicholas Nicklebys except the fictitious one). The story of "Nicholas Nickleby" was written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870). It tells us about the life and times of a young man living in London during the first half of the 19th century.

Sir William Wallace (1272-1305) was a real Scottish knight and landowner. He was one of the best known Scottish rebels during the War of Scottish Independence.

The correct answer to this question is Rob Roy, MacGregor to be precise. He became an outlaw in 1722, when his trustee ran off with the money for buying new sheep.

Answer: Sidecar cross

I've stated in the question that we are looking for a motorized sport. This excludes cyclo-cross: any biker using some motor engine would be immediately disqualified. Cyclo-cross world championships have been held every year since 1950. Up till 2009, the record holder is the Belgian Eric De Vlaeminck who won the World Championship seven times.

Formula One is an individual motor sport, although all pilots rely of course on a large team of very skilled mechanics. In 2008, the record holder here also had obtained seven World Championship titles: it was the German Michael Schumacher.

Rallying is a motorized team sport, but most of the attention goes to the driver. The co-driver gives navigating instructions and sometimes performs minor repairs to the car. World Championships started in 1977. By 2008, the French driver Sebastien Loeb had won five consecutive World Championships, while Finnish drivers Juha Kankkunen and Tommy Makkinen won four times each.

The correct answer to this question is Sidecar Racing. The driver (each time mentioned as the first part of the combination) steers a motorcycle with sidecar, while the passenger has to move his body in order to optimize the balance of the vehicle, allowing faster negotiating the numerous turns.

Answer: Coronation Street

The series we're looking for was named after a location. This excludes "Days of Our Lives", a popular American soap opera. The cast for the season 2009 includes Frances Reid (playing Alice Horton), who also appeared in the very first season in 1965.

"Home and Away" is an Australian soap opera which premiered in 1988. Ray Meagher, playing the role of Alf Stewart, starred in the 1988 season and is in the cast for the 2009 season. By the way, I'm aware of the existence of many bizarre place names, but I can't imagine any village, county, state, mountain, street, sea or whatever other place called "Away".

"Dallas" was a soap opera that ran from 1978 until 1991. Many of the cast members have played their role in all the different seasons: Larry Hagman (JR Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), and Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs).

"Coronation Street" is named after a street in Manchester, UK and focuses on the working class inhabitants of this street.

Answer: Stinger

Let's examine all the options given here.

The Tomahawk (BGM-109, initially produced by General Dynamics and now by Raytheon) is a ship-to-surface long range missile. It was once intended as an intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear warheads, so a range of only 8 kilometres (5 miles) would be very insufficient.

Kingfish is the popular NATO denomination for a Russian air-to-air long-range missile. Its official name is the Raduga KSR-5, but NATO designated it as an AS-6. Its range is 300 up to 700 kilometres (185 - 460 miles).

The Exocet is a French anti-ship missile built by Aerospatiale. Its operational range is between 70 and 180 kilometres (43 - 110 miles). The air-launched variant, the AM-39, was used during the Falkland War and sunk the HMS Sheffield.

The AIM-92 Stinger was initially produced by General Dynamics, now Raytheon. It is developed from the surface-to-air missile FIM-92 with the same popular name.

Answer: Francesco di Giorgio Martini

Giacomo della Porta (1533-1602) was an Italian Baroque architect born in Genoa, Italy. He lived and worked mostly in Rome, where he left us the façade of two churches: San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and Il Gesu.

Vittore Carpaccio (1472-1526) was a Venetian Renaissance painter. His masterworks include a series on the life of Saint Ursula and a series on the lives of Saint Jerome and Saint George. A dish with very mince sliced meat or salmon, topped with olive oil, balsamic acid and cheese was named after him.

Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691-1765) was a Roman Baroque painter. He specialised in architectural landscapes. The popular Italian dish of "Panini", roasted slices of bread with all kinds of stuffing, bears a similar name but was not named after this painter.

Martini (1439-1502) was a Tuscan Renaissance sculptor. You might have been leaded to the correct answer by the hint "shake and do not stir" - a reference of course to the James Bond movies.

Answer: Manhattan

Sakhalin is not an American island, but a Russian one. It lies at the far eastern part of Siberia, north of the northernmost islands of Japan. Its name was derived from a Manchu expression referring to the Amur River (translated as "Black River").

Molokai is one of the islands of the US state Hawaii. It became world famous when the Belgian Pater Damiaan (known in English as Father Damien) went over there to take care of a leper colony. The origin of the name Molokai is not clear.

Kodiak Island is an island on the south coast of Alaska. It was named after an Alutiiq tribe of native Alaskans.

Manhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City. It is located near the mouth of the Hudson River. Manhattan has an immensely dense population, and a very elevated average income. The Lenape tribe was also known as the Delaware tribe. The Lenape spoke one of the Algonquian languages.

Answer: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Why is it that so many books that were once or are still considered as obscene mention a woman's name in the title? Is it because men wrote these books?

"Anna Karenina" is not branded as obscene, but when it was first published I suspect that the Russian authorities would have marked it to be censored. The book describes how a noble woman and a noble man engage in an adulterous affair. Leo Tolstoy published it in Russia in 1877, after a row with his editor on some events in the final episode. Indeed: Tolstoy intended "Anna Karenina" to be published in instalments, just as Dickens did with many of his books.

"Lolita" is an infamous work by another Russian author, Vladimir Nabokov. Central theme is the love of a middle-aged man with a rather young girl. Nabokov published this book in 1950 in Paris, at first in the English version. He translated it into Russian, but the Russian version was first published in New York. (Who taught Nabokov his geography? Lol).

"Madame Bovary" is a novel by the French author Gustave Flaubert. The title character is a doctor's wife, involved in numerous adulterous affairs. The book was published in 1856 and Flaubert was immediately accused with obscene literature. He was acquitted though, in 1857.

"Lady Chatterley's Lover" is the only book of the given four options that was written by an Englishman. The English author D.H. Lawrence describes in this book the life and times of Constance, Lady Chatterley. Her husband gets paralysed from the waist down. Constance then turns to the gamekeeper for satisfying her sexual desires.

Answer: Vincenzo Bellini

Did you know the composer's surname starts with "B"? Good job, but which composer is an Italian?

Probably the most famous of these four composers is Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827). His name doesn't sound very Italian, does it? Well, Beethoven wasn't Italian at all: he was German, of Belgian ancestors. Beethoven composed only one opera: "Fidelio". He is better known for his nine symphonies and for his piano music (including the "Mondschein Sonata" and the bagatelle "Für Elise").

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was an English composer. He composed sixteen operas, of which the best known are "Peter Grimes" and "Death in Venice".
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) was a Hungarian composer. He left us mostly violin music, but completed one opera: "Duke Bluebeard's Castle". I won't bother you here with the original title, for that would lead my spelling checker in despair...

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) is the only Italian composer mentioned in the options, so he should be the one we're looking for. Bellini completed at least eleven operas, of which the most famous are "Norma", "Il Pirata" ("The Pirate") and "I Puritani" ("The Puritans").

Answer: Mimosa pudica

I have found no plant named Victoria secreta. However, I did not invent this name: it is the pseudonym of one of the members of Facebook and Flickr. Why this name as a red herring? Well, think about some model showing the catalogue of Victoria's Secret: you may look, but you must never touch...

The Pueraria lobata is commonly known as kudzu. It can avoid soil erosion by its wide spreading roots. For those of you who haven't studied Latin: the Pueraria part points in the direction of young boys (puer is the Latin for young boy). Raising young boys is a hard task: you have to keep watching their activities, but if something displeases you, a number of pedagogues forbid 'touching' (hitting) them.

The Phallus impudicus is not shy at all: it is a mushroom which quite resembles an erect part of the male anatomy. The odour might cause you to avert from it, but it is an edible mushroom. Impudicus is the opposite of pudicus (applied to males, pudica for females), which I will explain in the next paragraph.

So, the only valid option was the Mimosa pudica. Latin lovers (hum, I mean lovers of the Latin language - not the fiery type you would find in the Mediterranean and South America) recognise the word pudor (shame) in the denomination pudica.

Answer: Cocktail

This movie stars Elisabeth Shue and Tom Cruise. I only referred to the leading lady in this movie because Tom Cruise starred in three movies in 1988: "Young Guns" (in which movie Tom Cruise played only a minor part), "Cocktail", and "Rain Man".

The correct answers for the first nine questions are all alcoholic cocktails and long drinks. I'll continue with the ingredients for each one of them.

1. A Rob Roy: mix three parts of Scotch whisky with one part of red vermouth. Add some ice cubes. Decorate with a Maraschino cherry.

2. A Sidecar has several recipes. My personal favourite: mix one part of cognac with one part of triple sec and one part of lemon juice. Pour on grinded ice and adorn with lemon rind.

3. For a Coronation, you need three parts of dry vermouth, three parts of sweet vermouth and three parts of applejack, and a dash of apricot brandy.

4. A Stinger consists of two parts of cognac and one part of white crème de menthe, and two grinded ice cubes.

5. A Martini is perhaps the most famous of these cocktails. The base recipe is three parts of dry gin and one part of dry vermouth, decorated with a green olive. There are several variations, which can be recognised by different ornaments.

6. A Manhattan is made by mixing five parts of rye whiskey with two parts of sweet vermouth. Add some drops of angostura bitter and decorate with a Maraschino cherry.

7. A Chatterley is a cocktail consisting of four parts of dry gin, one part of French vermouth, a tea spoon of orange juice and some drops of triple sec. It is served with two, three or four ice cubes. This rather obscure recipe was found in a Dutch cooking book.

8. A Bellini is a long drink made by mixing one part of ice cold peach puree and two parts of ice cold dry sparkling wine (preferably the Italian Prosecco), poured over some ice cubes. Sounds delicious for hot summer days.

9. A Mimosa is also a long drink: mix two parts of orange juice with three parts of dry champagne, and pour over some ice cubes.

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